Living the Land Grant Mission Everyday

Our greatest challenge is truly being able to capture the breadth of our department's work. It has also changed over the years, from a Farm Economics department that included rural sociology, to one that deals with the entire farmer-to-consumer food system, environmental and natural resource issues, and local and international economic development. We have faculty and staff in Lexington, Elizabethtown, Bowling Green, Hopkinsville, Owensboro, Henderson, Princeton, and Mayfield. We are also the administrative home for Kentucky’s Small Business Development Center. We are heavily involved in College-wide programs like the Community Economic Development Initiative of Kentucky, the Food Systems Innovation Center, the Center for Crop Diversification, International Programs, Ag Equine Programs, and the Office of Diversity. We are collaborative and we are effective.

We will be well represented at SAEA (our regional Agricultural Economics meeting) this year with over 20 faculty and grads presenting over 30 papers and posters. Among the people representing our department are (from left to right): Jun Ho Seok, Yves Ilunga, Bo Chen, Tyler Mark, Jason Simon, Leigh Maynard, Jerrod Penn, Hua Zhong, Yuqing Zheng, and Wuyang Hu.

Members of Ag Econ's Quiz Bowl team (and service dog in-training, Impulse) will be flying high in San Antonio, TX as they compete in the SAEA regional Quiz Bowl competitions. At the regional competitions, students are teamed with competitors from other schools for additional networking opportunities. Members of the top teams are awarded prizes as well as bragging rights. Left to Right, Front row: Jerrod Penn (Coach), Rachel Hart, Impulse, Megan Harper, William Fox
Back row: Wuyang Hu (Academic Advisor), Daniella Straathof, April Winebarger, Erica Rogers

Professor Carl Dillon, currently serving as the Director of Graduate Studies, is staying busy with precision ag research with areas that include: carbon footprint, carbon efficient frontier, and heuristic analysis to develop rules of thumb for farmers to use.